Halo: Helljumper #1Review

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The ODST troopers become the focus of Marvel's second Halo mini-series.

By Jesse Schedeen

Once you can get past the rampant delays and overblown hype, Marvel's first Halo mini-series was a fun little read that proved Halo has plenty of potential in the realm of comics. The publisher clearly seems intent on tapping into that potential in 2009, as it has two separate follow-up books in development. Peter David and Eric Nguyen's Halo: Helljumper is first out of the gate, and it leaves a pretty solid impression in its first issue.

Helljumper focuses on the ODST troopers rather than the eponymous Master Chief. Given that these same troopers are set to star in Halo 3: ODST in a few months, this makes a great deal of practical sense. It's also wise from a creative standpoint. Master Chief doesn't necessarily have a lot going on under that helmet, and the lack of depth became apparent during Halo: Uprising as Chief took a backseat to the lowly human protagonists. Helljumper finds David very much in his element as a writer. He's given a small group of characters to work with, and the conflict flows naturally from there.

Simultaneously the best and worst aspect of Helljumper #1 is that it doesn't always feel much like a Halo story. The middle section is confined to the ODST barracks, and the setting at that point could just as easily be any 21st Century army base. All the same, David manages to weave some great dialogue, mining more character development out of the brief pages than many writers would be able to. David quickly establishes the ODST troopers as a very driven group who bury any feelings of fear and doubt as deep as possible, often to a fault. It's only one issue, but I find myself rather happy Master Chief is out of the picture.

But it must be said that the comic doesn't make the most spectacular use of the Halo license so far. The comic gets off to a fairly slow start. The troopers don't suit up till the final few pages, and even then the action is pretty much nonexistent. By the same token, Nguyen doesn't quite capture the look of the Halo-verse like Alex Maleev did. Nguyen's style may be more overtly suited to the world of sci-fi, but his characters are too roughly hewn and his backgrounds too muddy to really impress.

In the end, as much as the dialogue and character interaction impress, the real test of this new series will come as the conflict heats up and the battle between the ODST troopers and the Covenant truly begins. This comic has a good chance of topping Marvel's first Halo effort, and I'll be interested to see if it accomplishes that much.